1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to transaction cards and, more particularly, to encoding a magnetic stripe associated with a transaction card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Monetary transaction cards generally include smart cards, credit cards, debit cards, automatic teller machine (ATM) cards, identification (ID) cards, and pre-paid cards such as gift cards. Such monetary transaction cards typically include a magnetic stripe, or “magstripe,” which is used to enable data to be stored and transmitted. Data which is encoded or otherwise stored on a magnetic stripe may be read by a card reader head, e.g., a card reader head associated with a point-of-sale (POS) system, when the magnetic stripe comes into contact with, and is swiped against, the card reader head.
A monetary transaction card that includes a magnetic stripe is typically a card of a standard credit card size, or a CR-80 card. FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a standard CR-80 card. A CR-80 card 100 includes a magnetic stripe 108, and has a height H 112 that is approximately 2.125 inches and a width W 116 that is approximately 3.375 inches. A distance D1 120 between magnetic stripe 108 and an edge 104 of CR-80 card 100 is approximately 0.223 inches. Magnetic stripe 108 may include two tracks or three tracks (not shown), each having a height of approximately 0.11 inches. In general, a thickness D2 124 of magnetic stripe 108 may vary depending upon the number of tracks (not shown) associated with magnetic stripe 108. Typically, if two tracks (not shown) are encoded on magnetic stripe 108, thickness D2 124 may be approximately 0.375 inches. Alternatively, if three tracks (not shown) are encoded on magnetic stripe 108, thickness D2 124 may be approximately 0.5 inches.
Information encoded on magnetic stripe 108 is typically encoded beginning at a position P 128 that is approximately 0.25 inches from a left edge 132 of CR-80 card 100. Typically, a starting sentinel value is encoded at approximately position P 128. The starting sentinel value is followed by a data pattern. At the end of the data pattern, an ending sentinel value is encoded. In general, the position at which the ending sentinel value is encoded depends upon the number of characters included in the data pattern. In general, the information encoded onto or otherwise laid down on tracks (not shown) of magnetic stripe 108 is substantially specified by an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) 7811 or an International Standards Organization (ISO)/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) 7811 standard.
At times, the amount of space associated with a monetary transaction card that is the size of a standard credit card size may be insufficient from the point-of-view of an issuer of the monetary transaction card. By way of example, if a merchant that distributes a monetary transaction card wishes to display a relatively significant amount of information on the surfaces of the monetary transaction card, the merchant may find that the size of surfaces associated with a standard credit card size are inadequate. However, increasing the surface area associated with a monetary transaction card may result in a larger magnetic stripe that may either be difficult to read or even unreadable using some card reader heads. As a result, data encoded on such a magnetic stripe may not be reliably read.
Therefore, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for providing a magnetic stripe on a transaction card that is able to be reliably read with existing POS equipment regardless of the size of the magnetic stripe.